RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
There is an old and cynical saying about how to improve publicity for a sporting event: make sure the reporters who come are well-fed.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When it comes to the Olympics, it may also help if the journalists are well-housed, a detail that is our Last Word In Business today. And it seems to have eluded the organizers of this year's Winter Games.
MONTAGNE: In advance of the Opening Ceremonies, journalists have been arriving at Sochi-area hotels, and they've immediately started complaining on Twitter about shabby or unfinished buildings.
Mark MacKinnon, of The Globe and Mail, sets the scene. His tweet: For those of you asking, when there's no lobby in your hotel, you go to the owner's bedroom to check in.
INSKEEP: Another tweet complained: My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says do not use on your face.
Once the water came back, the same reporter tweeted a photo of a glass of water, roughly the same yellow color as - let's say beer.
MONTAGNE: Then there's the reporter who tweeted: The reception of our hotel has no floor, but it does have a welcoming picture of Vladimir Putin.
INSKEEP: Our colleague Tamara Keith offers some perspective here, writing: If the greatest disaster of these games is a few reporters complaining about their rooms, then that's really not so bad at all.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.